The Old Evil Foe

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith. 1 PETER 5:8–9

Modern readers are often embarrassed by how much Luther talks about the devil. He sees him everywhere: in his own temptations and illnesses, in the storms of history, in the papacy, in the fanatics, in every attack on the gospel. There is a famous story that at the Wartburg he threw his inkpot at the devil, and visitors were long shown a stain on the wall to prove it; the story is almost certainly a legend, and the stain was renewed more than once. But the reality behind the legend is not in doubt. Luther believed that the Christian life is a battle against a real enemy, personal, clever and malicious, who hates Christ and His people. That conviction runs through his hymns, his sermons, his letters and his prayers.

A real enemy

Luther took the Bible’s language about Satan at face value. The devil is the accuser, the liar, the tempter, the murderer from the beginning. He is not a symbol for human wickedness, though he works through it. And his chief target, Luther believed, is not our morality but our faith. The devil does not mind if we are respectable, so long as we trust in ourselves rather than in Christ. His Christmas sermon puts it simply: “the evil spirit attacks nothing so severely as our faith.” And his sermon on the appearing of the grace of God agrees: “The evil spirit will assail only our faith, well knowing that upon it depends all.”

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. EPHESIANS 6:12

This is why Luther’s own worst temptations were not to gross sin but to despair. The devil would come to him, he said, with the law in his hand, reminding him of his sins, telling him that God was angry, that he had led thousands astray, that he was damned. The accuser does not always lie about our sins. He lies about God’s mercy.

For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. REVELATION 12:10–11

The enemy within

Yet Luther was clear that we cannot blame the devil for everything. In his sermon on the appearing of grace, he mocks the idea that we can escape temptation by fleeing into the desert, putting on a monk’s habit, or changing our diet. If our sins were painted on the wall, he says, we could run out of the house; but they are in our own hearts. Then he says, directly:

“Dear man, the great temptations are within you.”

But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. JAMES 1:14

The devil works with what he finds in us. That is why the battle cannot be won by outward means alone. It must be fought where the enemy has his foothold: in the heart, by faith.

The weapons of the fight

How then do we fight? Luther’s answer was always the same: with the Word of God. The Christmas sermon, after its long meditation on the birth of Christ, ends with a section on the armour of the Gospel, explaining why it is important to know where each article of faith is found in Scripture. In time of temptation, he says, we must point to that Word, “for the evil spirit can not stand against God’s Word.”

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. EPHESIANS 6:11

Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. EPHESIANS 6:16–17

Christ Himself fought that way in the wilderness, answering every temptation with It is written. Luther urged believers to do the same: not to argue with the devil in their own strength, not to debate their feelings, but to answer him with Scripture, with the Creed, with the words I am baptised, with a hymn.

He also recommended scorn. The proud spirit, he said, cannot bear to be despised. Rather than trembling before the devil, the Christian may laugh at him, because he is a defeated enemy.

A defeated foe

That, finally, is the centre of Luther’s teaching on the devil. The enemy is real, but he is beaten. At the cross and the empty tomb, Christ crushed the serpent’s head, as God had promised in the garden. Luther’s Easter sermon rejoices in this victory. Because Christ has taken our sins and risen, the believer can say:

“Now I can defy death, the devil, sin and hell to do me any harm.”

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. GENESIS 3:15

And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. COLOSSIANS 2:15

This is the note A mighty fortress strikes: the old evil foe is fierce and cunning, and no earthly power can match him; yet a single little word of God can bring him down. The Christian fights, but the Christian fights from victory, not towards it.

Honest cautions

Luther’s vivid sense of the devil had a dark side. Because he saw Satan behind every opposition to the gospel, he was quick to call his opponents the devil’s servants — the pope, Zwingli, the Anabaptists, the rebellious peasants, and in the end the Jews. Once an opponent is simply the devil’s tool, there is little room left for charity, patience or the possibility that one might be wrong. Much of the violence of his polemic grew from this root.

He also shared his age’s belief in witchcraft, and approved the harsh punishment of those accused of it. Here he was a man of his time rather than a teacher to follow. Scripture is sober about the devil. It warns us of his wiles, but it never tells us to see his face in every person who disagrees with us. Our battle is not against flesh and blood.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. JAMES 4:7

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Where does the accuser most often attack your faith? Find one Scripture that answers that accusation and learn it by heart.

2. Practise Luther’s counsel: when tempted to despair, do not argue with your feelings; answer with the Creed or a verse.

3. Examine your heart for the temptations within you, and confess them rather than blaming circumstances.

4. Consider whether you have demonised someone you disagree with. Pray for them by name as a person, not an enemy.

5. Sing or read A mighty fortress this week as a declaration of Christ’s victory.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, You have crushed the serpent’s head and triumphed over every power of darkness.

When the accuser speaks, let me answer with Your Word and point to Your cross.

Search out the temptations that lie within my own heart, and give me grace to resist them.

Keep me from seeing enemies where You see souls for whom You died, and let me stand firm, from victory, until the day You bring every enemy under Your feet. Amen.